To get the most from Outlook Express you might want to
change some options:
add more icons to the toolbar, eliminate things you don't
want to use.
You can easily change the layout of the toolbar from View>>Layout
Under Basic add or remove components
from Outlook Express window: by default
"Tip
of the Day" and "Folder list" are checked.
Check "Outlook bar" to add a
vertical iconbar featuring inbox, outbox, sent items...
Or add the "Folder bar" to display the
folder's name at the top. Choose the options that suits
your needs.
Under Toolbar, change the toolbar's
location (left, right, bottom) and modify its
components. By default the toolbar is at the top.
Click on Customize Toolbar... to add or remove
buttons from the bar. In Customize Toolbar window, select
the button you want from Available buttons and press Add> to add it to Toolbar
buttons. Add a Separator - vertical shaded line -
to separate icons or group of icons. I recommend that you
add icons like Find, Print, maybe Move/Copy to.
If you use more than one language in your Program you can
add a language icon.
When adding icons make sure you don't exceed the space on
the toolbar or else some icons will not be visible. To
overcome this, make the icons smaller by eliminating text
labels: from View>>Layout simply uncheck
"Show text on toolbar buttons", click Apply then
press OK to go back. This
will free some space for other icons...

To quickly customize the toolbar right-click anywhere on the
toolbar and select Buttons...
to open the Customize Toolbar window.
If you want to turn the toolbar to its original state,
press Reset. (Customize
Toolbar window)Under
Preview Pane, customize the message window:
uncheck "Use preview pane" to
eliminate it from Outlook Express window and have more
space for message listing.
Show the message content (Preview Pane) Below
Messages or Beside Messages uncheck "Show preview pane
Header" to remove the message header. The
Header identifies the message sender and subject, remove
it to display more of your messages in the preview pane
window - From, Subject are already listed in the messages
window.

Tip: use ? if available in
a window to know more about a particular command.

If you have lots of unread messages and wanted to
separate them from read messages and examine them one by one, click View>>Current
View and select Unread Messages:
all previously read messages will disappear from message
window, only unread messages will be available. To return
back simply switch to "All Messages".To
change the columns layout (From, Subject, Received), select a folder
e.g Inbox and click View>>Columns in Columns
window Add> anything you want
from Available columns to Displayed
columns, use <Remove to eliminate a
column and Reset to return to
default settings. Press Move Up, Move Down buttons to set
the order of column display, finally press OK to finish.
You might want to add a Size column, to
display the size of messages you receive.

You can set different options for Inbox, Outbox, Sent Items...
Just select the folder and click View>>Columns.
Remember that all sub-folders follow the main folder in column settings e.g if MyInbox is a
sub-folder of Inbox it cannot have a different columns display.
To modify the column width, move your mouse to the edge
of the column, click and drag to change its size.

Two
other useful columns are: Priority and Attachment
Priority specifies the message importance, if you
consider the email you send urgent, when Composing click Tools>>Set
Priority and choose High, appears in your message header indicating a
High Priority message. Normal is the default
for all messages.
If you receive a High Priority message (!) take it
seriously !
This icon under Attachment column indicates
an email attachment.

PS:If
you have vision problems, change the character-size for
all messages:
click View>>Fonts select Largest. (Medium is
default)